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Marquette sweeps Gladstone Invitational

ESCANABA — Marquette boys and girls swept the Gladstone Invitational on Thursday at Beauchamp’s Grove in Flat Rock.

“A good day to be a Redmen and Redette,” Marquette coach Kyle Detmers said. “We love coming here. We love the people. It’s a cross country course. We usually run fast here. We are starting to peak, which is always good to see your kids getting faster and staying healthy. We had some kids battling the flu but they ran through it. Overall I’m really pleased.”

In the boys’ division, Marquette totaled 43 points to finish ahead of second-place Ishpeming 56, Escanaba 127, Negaunee 142 and Gladstone 154.

Marquette’s Garrett Rudden pulled away down the final stretch to finish first in 16:23. He was followed by Gladstone’s Adam Bruce, who had been sidelined about two weeks with an Achilles injury, but finished second with a personal-best of 16:28.

“I had a bad Achilles problem when I was on a long training run and it kind of set me back,” Bruce said. “I’ve been going to physical therapy and getting better each day. I haven’t been able to run hard. This was my first time. I was a little nervous and I ran my best time.

“I was just so happy to be running again. When i finished I wasn’t even tired. It felt so good. I don’t think I’ve been that happy this year.”

Gladstone also received a personal-best time from Jake Strasler, who finished fifth in 17:16.

Justin Sanpaka led Escanaba with a seventh-place time of 17:29 and Luke LaFave was 12th in 17:58.

North Central’s Griffin Johnson (18:03) and Connor Robinson (18:05) finished 15th and 16th, respectively.

Azariah Hernandez finished 29th in 18:48 to lead Rapid River and Alex Misnikwicisz led Manistique with a 19th-place time of 18:15.

In the girls’ division, Marquette had 50 points to finish first ahead of Negaunee 78, Menominee 113, Munising 125 and Escanaba 147.

Negaunee’s Emily Paupore broke the 19-minute barrier and posted a first-place time of 18:52. She was pushed during the race by second-place teammate Clara Johnson and her personal-best 19:21.

“That was a big goal for the entire season,” Paupore said about the 19-minute mark. “I’m usually 10 seconds away. Today, I just felt good and ran a good race. t was perfect temperature. This course is really nice.”

Escanaba’s Nicole Kamin led the area runners with a sixth-place time of 20:50. She was followed by Mid Peninsula’s Landry Koski (20:52) in seventh place. Gladstone’s Jolan Steineke (22:17) finished 21st and Escanaba’s Medeline Gardner (22:33) was 26th.

Superior Central’s Danika Walters (21:11) also crossed in 11th place to pace the Cougars.

Gladstone coach Gary Whitmer was pleased with the turnout of 16 schools.

“I think it comes at a good time of the year,” Whitmer said. “I think they like the course. They can run some fast times here. It was a nice cool day. It was perfect for running.”

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